Morning Joe - Morning Joe 3/11/24

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

'Oppenheimer’ dominates the Oscars, collecting trio of major awards among its 7 wins

Mr. President, enough is enough. The free world deserves better, and it doesn't have to be this way. We all feel it. We hear you, and we stand with you. We are steeped in the... Good evening, America. My name is Katie Britt, and I have the honor of serving the great people of Alabama.

But tonight, I'll be auditioning for the part of Scary Mom. And I'll be performing an original monologue called, This Country is Hell. You see, I'm not just a senator. I'm a wife, a mother, and the craziest s*** in the Target parking lot. First and foremost, I'm a mom. And like any mom, I'm going to do a pivot out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking.

And rest assured, every detail about it is real, except the year, where it took place, and who was president when it happened. And tonight, I am not just responding to the State of the Union. I am also selling these gorgeous bejeweled cross necklaces. Kitchens are where families have the hard conversations. Like the one we'll have tomorrow about how mommy freaked out the entire country. To the American people who are struggling right now know this we hear you we see you we smell you we're inside your kitchen right now looking through your fridge and what's that on the top shelf migrants I think that analogy went well.

Wow. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, March 11th. I don't know which Katie Brint was more like Katie Britt, but that was incredible. With us, we have the host of way too early White House beer chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kaye and MSNBC contributor and author of the book, How the Right Lost Its Mind. Charlie Sykes is with us this morning. And boy, do we need Charlie. But before we get to politics, can we talk about the Oscars? The 96th annual Oscars were held last night in Hollywood. If you couldn't stay up that late, Oppenheimer came into the night with 13 nominations and ended up with the most wins, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. Emma Stone won best actress for her role in Poor Things and best supporting actress went to Dave Vine, Joy Randolph for her role in The Holdovers. That was amazing. The Oscars also featured showstopping performances from singer Billie Eilish and actor Ryan Gosling, both performing songs from the Barbie soundtrack. And at the end of the night, Jimmy Kimmel took a minute to read former President Trump's reaction to his hosting.

I just got a review and has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars? His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up but cheap ABC talent. See if you can guess which former president just posted that on ShoeSide. Anyone? No? Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching.

I'm surprised you're still watching. Isn't it past your jail time? Okay. And here we go. That's the thing. I just, he just does, I guess he doesn't understand. He just keeps walking into traps. He keeps, he keeps, you know, again,

it's like it's like an old fighter that's passed his prime. The things that may have worked that may have been disruptive six, you know, 2016, everybody knows what's coming. So he's the butt of the joke for, you know, millions and millions of people last night. Well, two things can be true, because while he keeps losing and having problems along the way, especially legal problems, he's developing a whole new bench, a whole generation of young, I would say Republicans, but I think it's safer to call them Trumpers who lie like he does and they don't care. And who will lose like Katie Britt, who will we'll get to that in a minute. But they'll lose, too. I mean, this is just this is a pathway to loserdom. And we've been seeing that over the weekend. You've been seeing the reaction to Biden's State of the Union address. You've been seeing really stupid reactions from people that said he was going to be asleep. Now it's like, oh, he's too jacked up. And oh, he's like, that's all. What is it? Which do you want? Yeah, exactly. Do you want him to be? Yeah. OK. So nearly 33

million people watch and they can decide President Biden's State of the Union address on broadcast or cable television Thursday night, a marked increase from the year before. And in the State of the Union address on broadcast or cable television Thursday night, a marked increase from the year before. And in the wake of the president's well-received speech, the Biden campaign hit record fundraising numbers. In the 24 hours after Biden's remarks, his reelection campaign raked in $10 million. That is the largest 24-hour haul the campaign and its affiliated committees have seen so far. This weekend, the president kicked off his post-state-of-the-union campaign tour with a stop in Philadelphia on Friday, followed by a rally in Georgia on Saturday. His campaign also released a new political ad that leaned into the president's age. Take a look.

Look, I'm not a young guy. That's no secret. But here's the deal. I understand how to get things done for the American people. I led the country through the covid crisis. Today, we have the strongest economy in the world. I passed a law that lowers prescription drug prices, caps insulin at thirty five35 a month for seniors. For four years, Donald Trump tried to pass an infrastructure law, and he failed. I got it done. Now we're rebuilding America. I passed the biggest law in history to combat climate change, because our future depends on it.

Donald Trump took away the freedom of women to choose. I'm determined to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again. Donald Trump believes the job of the president is to take care of Donald Trump. I believe the job of the president is to fight for you, the American people. And that's what I'm doing. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Can we do one more take? Look, I'm very young, energetic, and handsome.

What the hell am I doing this for? All right. That and, of course, I'll be running in critical swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia. And so, Charlie, you look at we've been talking about our former party, been talking about the excesses of the former party. I've been talking about the excesses of the former party. I really, again, I've talked about all the state of the unions I've been in, political campaigns I've followed or been through. I've just never seen a contrast this striking. It's almost like seven, eight years of corruption and extremism in line caught up to Republicans all in one night. So visualized in one night. And it seems now Biden has the wind behind him.

Yeah, no, I've been a Biden skeptic, but that was that was very, very good. And also just think about, you know, how the mood and how the mood, the narrative has changed in the last week. You know, a week ago, you and I were sitting here discussing the freak out of the Democrats about Joe Biden. And think about where we're at. Just a reminder how fast things move in politics. So you had a good few days for Joe Biden, including that ad and some of the interviews that he's given. But also the Trump VP audition not going that well.

To Mika's point about the Republican bench, we're kind of seeing where this party is going, this next generation. And as they try to channel their inner Donald Trump, it has really not gone well, has it? No, it really hasn't. You know, Mika and I were just talking about, I told her that I'd met Katie Britt down at the SEC championship game, really liked her a lot, met her family down to earth. And I said, you know, it didn't seem to be Trumpy, seemed to be like a traditional Republican, which made a lot of sense. And she worked, you know, who she worked

for, Richard Shelby, and just had a great five, 10 minute talk with her. And then, you know, who she worked for, Richard Shelby, and just had a great five, 10 minute talk with her. And then, you know, it was a lot like Elise Stefanik, who we had a great talk with when Elise first came into Congress. And I said, oh, my gosh, the future of the Republican Party is strong because, again, she's reasonable. The antithesis of Donald Trump. Young, smart. Young, smart. And, boy, somebody that the party could get around in the long run. But Jonathan Amir. Heartbreaker.

Yeah, man, both of them. Very surprising. We'll see what happens with Katie Britt. And, unfortunately, she doubled down this weekend on the story that was a lie. I hated to see that. So I think she'd come out and say, hey, you know what? I'm new to this. Didn't do as good as well as I could do. And, you know, sorry about the story. It happens, you know, and she could have moved past it. But I guess she's going to double down. But on the Biden side, man, they've got to be they

have got to be so excited. The speech, not only did he prevail, he humiliated all of his critics, raised for all the world, tons of money, over 30 million people watching that and now joking about his age, which is exactly what people have been telling him to do for some time. And he does it well. Yeah. First on Brit, the story you mentioned, she told us a terrible story about a sexual assault involving a migrant. She suggested it happened during President Biden's term. In fact, it happened over 20 years ago when George W. Bush was president. It also happened in Mexico. And she still doubled down on that of a Fox News interview over the weekend. And we should give kudos to Scarlett Johansson. That was who we saw savage her hysterically on Saturday Night Live at the top of our show here. But as for Biden, yeah, they've got wait for it.

Joe Mentum, they well-received speech, well-received speech watched by a lot of people, fundraising bits, their best 24 hours of the entire campaign came after that speech. And then he hit the road. He was in Pennsylvania on Friday, on Georgia over the weekend, New Hampshire today, Michigan and Wisconsin later this week. He's ramping up the travel here, the campaign fully engaged now. And they do. I can't tell you the number of Democrats I've spoken to in the last three days or so who just feel much better about things. They also point to some polls that show Biden getting a bump in the last week or two, some of that even coming before the State of the Union. I suspect those numbers will only go up in the days ahead. They have so much more money on hand than Trump does. Of course, Trump having

used some of his cash for his legal bills. And they feel good about the contrast. They feel good about the story they can tell where they are versus where Trump is. And that ad is the latest. It won't be the last. The latest example to take on the age thing head on. They know it's an issue. They think they can diffuse it. They think it's a problem for Trump, too. So speaking of contrast, you had Joe Biden after his incredible State of the Union address talking about his accomplishments and all the positive things he was able to get done in the wake of the Trump presidency coming into the White House, literally barricaded after January 6th and being able to move forward, persevere and pass countless legislation,

even bipartisan legislation that has improved the economy. This is a fact again about the American people. Exactly. So you have all those messages resonating after the speech as he goes out on the campaign trail. And then meanwhile, Donald Trump, he's at Mar-a-Lago hosting Hungary's autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orban, on Friday to quote, to discuss a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States. Orban, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has refused to provide any aid to Ukraine while seeking to turn his own country into an illiberal state. Trump has repeatedly bragged about having Orban's endorsement for his 2024 campaign and at a dinner on Friday,

fond over the Hungarian leader. There's nobody that's better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban. He's fantastic. As you know, the prime minister of Hungary. And does a great job.

He's a non-controversial figure because he said this is the way it's going to be and that's the end of it, right? He's the boss. And now he's a great leader. So, Cady, again, I've been warning that he keeps bringing up Victor Orban for a reason. Victor Orban, who brags about getting rid of Western style democracy, who brags about being in a liberal state, who who has has has arrested and jailed competing politicians, members of the press, driven them out of the country, has actually bugged the phones of rival politicians and journalists. You name it, he's done it. And this is who Donald Trump admires. And he says he's non-controversial because he says what he wants and he gets it done. He's the boss. And Trump, of course, said that in the most admiring of ways.

That's what America looks like under Donald Trump's second term, if we take him at his own words, right? Yeah, I thought that that line about he's not controversial because he says what he wants and he gets it done. He's the boss was so reflective. I mean, you know, projection confession. That was total projection of what Donald Trump would like. I mean, Viktor Orban is proud of the fact that he's made Hungary what he calls an illiberal democracy. I'm not quite sure whether those two things can actually be possible together. How do you have a democracy that's illiberal, that goes against the very strain of democracy? But anyway, that's what he's done by packing the courts with his cronies, by weighing in on judicial cases,

by making it incredibly difficult for journalists to do any kind of independent reporting. They are told by their editors what facts they can report before they actually are allowed to write their articles. That's the kind of state that Donald Trump down there in Mar-a-Lago in that speech seems to be admiring. It's also the state, you know, Tucker Carlson went to Viktor Orban to kind of pay homage to his type of leadership. There is a strain there in the MAGA movement that clearly admires those illiberal democracies, autocratic leaning countries. And again, it's tied up with Russia. The EU had to lean very heavily on Viktor Orban, basically threatening him with other punishments if he didn't go ahead and agree to an EU package of aid to Ukraine, because he didn't want to. He didn't want to do something that would get in the

way of Vladimir Putin. And you see that these things are linked. It's a circular movement that we see from what Donald Trump is doing down in Mar-a-Lago, Tucker Carlson's visit to Moscow and Viktor Orban and Viktor Orban's relationship with Vladimir Putin? Well, you have you you have in Donald Trump a guy who said he's going to terminate the Constitution. He's going to be a dictator on day one. He's he would like to execute generals for not being lackeys, for treason, said he could use SEAL Team 6 to execute his political opponents and not be arrested. And you go through all of this long list. You go through his presidency and things that he said and did in his presidency. You don't

just have what he's saying. You have now a record. Well, and even in his presidency, where in the last two weeks he said he wanted to, he was demanding that his attorney general arrest Joe Biden and Joe Biden's family because he was behind in the polls and said he should send him to jail. So you have all of this happening. We talked about the young Republicans who unfortunately have have have had their their bearings like twisted by this to become unrecognizable. And you look at, I saw Vaughn Hilliard interviewing people at Trump rallies talking about civil war, saying that if they didn't win this time, they were going to use violence. They're going to take over state legislatures. They were going to take over courts. They were going to come to Washington. They were going to take over Washington. Charlie Sykes, this is not a test run. This is a guy that's told his followers,

if I win, I'm going to be a dictator. And his followers are all in. And again, Charlie, how perverse that it's people that I went to church with, evangelicals, a lot of them that seem to be swept up into this totalitarianism, this authoritarianism. And also small government Republicans, Tea Party types that wanted small government. They're now begging for an autocrat, for a tyrant, for a dictator. And all of this is happening in broad daylight, in real time. And there's no subtlety. There's no secret about it. As Katie mentioned, he's leaning into his embrace of illiberal authoritarianism. He says it out loud. And, you know, speaking of, you know, his the younger

Republicans on the bench, you have people like Nancy Mace now who are forced to go out and justify the fact that that this this illiberal authoritarian who's talking about civil war is also been found liable for rape. So you begin to put together this picture, what Republicans are embracing right now, what they are endorsing, and what Donald Trump is bringing into this campaign, because Donald Trump is not going to get better. I think throughout 2024, what you're going to see is his inability to restrain his id. And the fact that he's up there on stage at Mar-a-Lago talking about, you know, he's not controversial because he's the boss. He says something and it's over.

This is clearly something that he admires. This is clearly something that he aspires to. And yes, it's alarming. And I know there are people out there who say, look, you know, you guys are engaging in Trump derangement syndrome. Just simply listen to Donald Trump. Listen to what he is saying. Listen to what his supporters are saying on a daily basis. It's not a secret. Well, he is preparing everybody for what he's going to do when he says he, you know, talks about terminating the Constitution. He says he's going to be a dictator on day one when he talks about executing generals who are insufficiently loyal or finding media outlets guilty of treason. When he talks about all the things he's doing, when he says he argues in court that he can execute political opponents using SEAL Team 6 and he can't get in trouble for it. When he says that in court, then, yeah, he's telling people what he's going to do.

And yet these younger Republicans just fall in line. They're going to lose. They're going to destroy their careers. And, yeah, you look at Nancy Mace, even after Donald Trump is found liable for sexual assault, and a judge says, really, he raped he raped. And there are other women who have also accused him of rape. And there are other deals that have been struck that actually the prosecution, the Alvin Bragg case, they want to bring. Right.

We want to bring forward to show that this is a pattern of behavior. So 91 counts. OK, then a sexual assault, then fraud. I'm sorry, I just want to go over his legal challenges. I've just got to say, I was speaking specifically of Nancy Mace. A judge talks about Donald Trump raping a woman, and because she has no choice but to blindly defend Donald Trump, she defends a man that a judge says

is a rapist and does it without apology. And and again, you see, I could talk about Katie Britt, but I could also talk about Marco Rubio. Once once one of the most promising stars in the Republican Party was called the future of the Republican Party by by by time. I think it was now just a shell of his his former self politically. You look at all these people ran Paul that criticizing Don Ted Cruz. We could go on and on. They just all fall in line. It's sad and it's pathetic and they're all going to lose. It's just like it's like Trump's going to lose again.

And for some reason, they can't pull out of this political death spiral. Right. And we should show the Nancy Mace exchange at some point because she accuses the reporter of shaming her. When all he's doing is asking, actually, that she tells the truth for once about Donald Trump. Still out in the morning, Joe, the latest in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, what President Biden is saying about his frustrations with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Now, the Israeli prime minister is responding. You're watching Morning Joe. We have got a lot to cover today. We'll be right back. President Biden is offering some sharp criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza. After his State of the Union address last Thursday, the president was caught on a hot mic voicing what appears to be frustrations with the prime minister's Jonathan Capehart. What I meant was it's an expression used in the southern part of my state, meaning a serious meeting.

And it was I've known Bibi for 50 years and he knew what I meant by it. So what's the, what's the come to Jesus part? What tough love do you, are you going to give to the prime minister? What's happening is he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas, but he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He's hurting, in my view, he's hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world. It's contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it's a big mistake. So I want to see a ceasefire.

What is your red line with Prime Minister Netanyahu? Do you have a red line? For instance, would invasion of Rafah, which you have urged him not to do, would that be a red line? It is a red line, but I'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there's no red line. I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them. They don't have. But there's red lines that. I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them. They don't have. But there's red lines that if he crosses and they cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going out. There's other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with the with with the trauma caused by Hamas. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is rejecting the president's criticism. He told

Politico he's doing what the people of Israel want. The prime minister also vowed to defy Biden's so called red line with Rafa, saying Israeli troops will still move into the southern Gaza city. Joining us now, columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post, David Ignatius. His latest piece is entitled The White House Tries to Steer Israel Back onto a Two-Way Street. So, David, is it possible? Yeah. At what point, David, I keep waiting for this Suez moment where, you know, Ike stood up to the Brits, said you just can't do this anymore. This is this is not helping you. It's not helping the United States. It's going to cause bigger problems down the road.

At what point do we reach would reach that? Because this is pretty much unsustainable diplomatically, unsustainable in the long run militarily, unsustainable politically for the Israeli people. I'm not even talking about the United States. I guess there are a good number of people in Israel that either don't know or don't care the long-term damage Bibi Netanyahu is doing to the country, but we can. And as their chief sponsor, at some point, they've got to stop killing Palestinians or we have to have the Suez moment with them. So, Joe, the hope was that by today, the beginning of Ramadan, we would have a truce, we'd have a six-week pause, and we'd have a gradual de-escalation of tensions in this war, much more humanitarian aid, and a sigh on all sides that the war was moving into a different phase. That hasn't happened. So I think we are now very

close to the kind of confrontation you described. We've got a president of the United States saying to an Israeli prime minister, you're hurting your country more than you're helping it. Pretty strong language. Biden has suggested that if Israel goes forward with its plan to try to attack the four Hamas battalions that are still in the city of Rafah along the Egyptian border, it will not have U.S. support. Exactly what Biden meant by a red line wasn't clear in his interview with our colleague Jonathan Capehart, but it seems to suggest that the U.S. might withhold weapons or make weapons conditional. I know that's what the discussion in the White House has been.

So we're getting really close to the kind of break that you talked about earlier that's, I really wanna say unprecedented since the days of Suez, but it would be a huge step for an American president to take. I think the measure, Joe, will be whether the Israelis do in fact move over the next week against Rafah. If they don't, that means they will have heard the message that the holding back pending, I guess, the ceasefire finally coming through

and calm finally coming to the battlefield. And again, you look at the images that continue to come out. You look at, you know, Nick Kristof's column yesterday, the text messages that were coming out, the images of a 10-year-old boy starving to death. This has gone on and on. We, of course, remember the horrid images of October the 7th. And let me just say right here, it's why Hamas cannot continue. It's why Hamas has forfeited its right to run Gaza.

They have forfeited their right to ever run Gaza again. But two things can be true at one time. And the second thing is Israel cannot continue moving in the at the life just slipping away among the Palestinians by the day, and as Joe said, children starving to death and the suffering is beyond anything we can explain. Is this what the people of Israel want, especially given how the Israeli government has handled October 7th from the start? So, Mika, these images are excruciating. And I think any person of goodwill watching them has growing difficulty. It's wonderful that the United States has finally moved with both feet into the role

of providing humanitarian assistance. The airdrops are just a beginning, but the significant move will be the maritime deliveries. Much more assistance can go in. And then the demand that Israel open new crossings so trucks can roll in and this is near near famine situation now can be eased. For me, having stood at the edge of Gaza City in the first month of this war, when the Israelis first allowed journalists to go into Gaza and watched a line of Palestinians as long as I could see marching south from Gaza City toward what they were told was safety in Rafah. The idea that the million Palestinian refugees in Rafah will now have to flee again because there's going to be an assault on Rafah toward God knows where is just a painful thought. The images of those faces of people leaving in desperate fear, now having to leave again too much.

So really, I do think this question to go into Rafa or not is a critical one. Biden has made it his red line. Let's see if he can make it stick. David, I'm struck by how many people say to me that they don't they don't really understand what's happening in Gaza. They're not seeing the images. This is not like a famine that's happening in Ethiopia, where it's being broadcast back into people's living rooms every evening. Just because we don't have international crews and journalists there. I wish everyone could read Nick Kristof's piece. Do you think that if there was more awareness of what is actually happening to women and children and babies and pregnant mothers and how little food they have, then minds would change in this country and things would move a little bit faster and Bibi would just have no choice but to move faster himself? So I think minds are

changing in the United States. All over the country, you see protests, you see effects in the primaries in Michigan, other demonstrations that the images are getting through in the U.S. The question is whether they're getting through in Israel, whether Israelis feel, as President Biden is demanding, that feel a sense of responsibility for civilian casualties in Gaza. To date, there hasn't been much sign that there is that concern. And that's that's a big change. Israelis are still focused, understandably, in many ways on what happened to them on October 7. But they are responsible now for this territory. They have knocked over the government of Hamas.

And the people there and their suffering, just feeding them every day, is something Israelis have to realize they now have the principal responsibility for. So, David, furthering your point there about how Israel doesn't seem the population doesn't seem that particularly impacted by what's happening in Gaza. Talk to us about what you know is the latest in Netanyahu's political standing at home. He's certainly here in the States. There are a lot of questions as to how long he can hold on. Those in the Biden administration privately suggesting that they're looking at what a post Netanyahu Israel could be. But they also acknowledge they have no idea when that will happen because Netanyahu continues to keep the war in place and therefore keeps his hold on power.

What's your sense as to just how long Netanyahu can can last here? We know he's a political survivor. He is a survivor. And boy, is he making those skills obvious in this conflict. In a sense, I think Netanyahu believes that if he can show that he's standing up to an American leader who's trying to push Israel around, that will be popular with his countrymen. He has been extremely unpopular. Poll numbers down around 20 percent. He has been far behind Benny Gantz as principal challenger. The point I think that Netanyahu is trying to make to Biden is there's no difference between him and Gantz on the question of whether to assault Rafah, for example. They both agree it should be done. Israelis agree they want to end the war with a win for Israel. They want the hostages back, but they also want to win the war. So I think the administration understands that if they push Netanyahu in the wrong way, they'll end up adding

support for an otherwise very unpopular leader. There are all kinds of scenarios people discuss in Washington for how elections might come, how a new government might arrive that could work better with the United States. I do think over the course of this year, you are going to see elections in a new government. The question is, will it come before another catastrophic stage of this war or after? Well, and again, let's let's just, again, keep score here with Netanyahu here. Mr. You know, I'm going to I'm the toughest guy on Hamas. This is a guy in 2018, along with Trump, knew the sources of Hamas's illegal funding and decided to do nothing about it and let the funding continue. This is a guy who just a couple of weeks before the October 7th attacks had his people in Doha. And Qatar said, asked the Israeli government,

Netanyahu's government, should we continue funding Hamas from Qatar and Netanyahu's government? Yes. Yes. Continue doing that. This is a government, Netanyahu's government that had the terrorist plans for a year beforehand, get multiple warnings. No, they had a whole document, 40-page document, explaining what would happen. And I don't know, was it because it was women who came up with the document, but they were ignored? Well, you take that, you take the warnings right before the attack,

that there were a group of Hamas terrorists mobilizing by the wall. They were getting rid of their SIM cards. They were obviously getting ready to attack. They did nothing. And then the attack. One hour, two hour goes by with Hamas raping women, setting them on fire, burning elderly people, shooting parents in front of children, shooting children in front of parents, doing the most ungodly things. One hour goes by, Netanyahu's government does nothing.

Two hours goes by, Netanyahu's government does nothing. Three hours goes by, Netanyahu's government does nothing. Three hours goes by, Netanyahu's government does nothing. Four hours goes by, Netanyahu's government does nothing. Five, six, seven, eight, some 10 hours. How big is Israel? Let me tell you something. On 9-11, three minutes after the first plane's attack, the first responders were there. Three minutes.

And then an hour from across the state. And Netanyahu's government waits six, seven, eight, ten hours. They won't explain why they waited so long while they knew this was going on. They let the killings continue.

They let the rapes continue. Why they didn't mobilize. And all those say is, well, let's wait until after the war's over. Okay, well, Mr. Netanyahu, then why did you tell Qatar to keep funding Hamas three weeks before Hamas killed more Jews than at any time since the Holocaust?

Netanyahu said, we'll have to wait until the war's over to talk about that. Okay, well, why didn't you do anything when you knew in 2018 the sources of Hamas's illicit funding? Why didn't you and Trump do anything in 2018 to cut it off? Netanyahu says, we'll have to wait until the war is over to talk about that. You see what happens when the war is over. He understands he's out of a job and he actually, like Trump, has to face the music in court. So the war just goes on and on and on. And the United States, I agree with Joe Biden, the United States needs to always defend Israel. But we don't have to defend Netanyahu. We don't have to watch as

Netanyahu destroys one of our closest allies in Israel. We don't have to stand by and do this. And let me tell you something. We did this to Britain and the crisis in 56, despite the fact that Britain was our closest ally on the globe. Just just a decade earlier, the both of us had won World War Two together and pushed back Nazism. And Ike did it because he understood that Britain was going down a road that would end badly for them. We have every right to do that here. We need to do that, not just to protect the United States reputation across the globe, but I will say in this case, more importantly, to protect Israel, Israel's reputation here in the United States, across the globe with our allies, so they will continue getting support into the future. Right now, Mika, they are moving in a dangerous, dangerous direction for Israel. Yeah, that's why I ask if this,

what the people of Israel want in their leadership, especially the parents of hostages. The Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you very much. And coming up, Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama responds to questions about her extremely misleading response to President Biden.

That was Caitlyn Clark. Oh, she's amazing. It's Caitlyn Clark. I don't think Katie picked up basketball over the weekend. Anyhow, her response to President Biden's State of the Union address. We'll have that also ahead. Iowa superstar Caitlyn Clark helps the Hawkeyes make their case for a number one seed. We'll bring in ESPN's Pablo Torre as March Madness approaches.

Plus, Roger Bennett joins us with highlights from yesterday's Premier League showdown between Manchester City and Liverpool. You heard some screaming yesterday, didn't you? I heard some screaming. Morning Joe is back in a moment. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That's where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. That was Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama in her rebuttal address to President Biden's State of the Union, linking a graphic account of a young woman's sex trafficking to Biden's immigration policy.

And saying she couldn't believe that this happened in the United States of America. But the abuse actually happened during President George W. Bush's administration nearly 20 years ago and not in America, in Mexico. She was asked about that yesterday on Fox News. Did you mean to give the impression that this horrible story happened on President Biden's watch? No, Shannon, look, I very specifically said this is what President Biden did during his first 100 days. Minutes after coming into office, he stopped all deportations. He halted construction of the border wall. But to be clear, the story that you relate is not something that's happened under the Biden administration, that particular person. Well, I very, very clearly said I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked

when she was 12. Charlie, there's nothing clear about it. The entire, and I don't, again, listen. I don't understand how you walk that back. Listen, stuff happens in politics. Bad speeches are made, you know, and it's always better to go out and say, man, I really I blew that one. And people will forgive you for it. And they'll even like you better for it, for saying, yeah, boy, I man, I just wow.

Was I off on that? And I'm so sorry. And by the way, I told this story and I conflated some facts and issues and dates. And I'm really sorry for that. But I hope you understand my bigger point is that the Biden administration's policies from day one have been disaster. Like she could have said that. But again, I don't know who's advising her, but to double down after that performance, the wrong thing to do. Own it like Biden is owning his age. Yes, but in MAGA world, you can never apologize, right? Being a Republican these days is never having to say you're sorry. And that was not just misleading. I mean, that was a purposeful lie.

And I think that we're seeing this again and again. Look, we know that part of the narrative is that Joe Biden is weak on the border. And as a result, we're being subject to all of this migrant crime. So you have Elon Musk over the weekend tweeting out a completely bogus meme about, you know, illegal immigrants who are committing crimes and Joe Biden is giving them awards. Then you have Katie Brick coming up with this this gruesome and grisly story that has no relation whatsoever to what's happening on the border. Now, somebody had to know that somebody had to recognize that this was a problem. She goes ahead with it anyway, maybe figuring nobody would figure it out. And then

when she's confronted with it, she gives that complete non-denial denial. Look, I think one of the obvious questions is if, in fact, this is a terrible, terrible problem, if there are examples of migrant crime, then, you know, why do you have to make up the ones that did not occur? I mean, these are realities. This is something that the Biden administration is going to have to deal with. But it is interesting. It would be interesting to know who advised Katie Britt, who advised her on the drama, who advised her on the lies to get, because it didn't do her any favors at all. No. You know, it's so interesting you said that, because, again, that's a question of a couple of a couple of people who know her. And I were talking this weekend.

Right. Who advised what happened? Like she's she's again, she's very likable person. Charlie, if you just talk to her one on one, very likable has been very likable. No nonsense. Again, Richard Shelby worked for Richard Shelby. She doesn't come naturally from the MAGA wing. But Charlie, who advised her? Who told her this was the right thing to do? It's crazy. Well, I have no idea, but I will say that Scarlett Johansson had a much tougher job than you might think, because how do you do a parody of what is a parody itself?

You know, at the top of this hour, you played a bit from Katie Britt. And it's hard to outdo how strange that was, how the overacting. And again, this is, maybe it's just the curse of the State of the Union response. It seems like every politician that does it fall flat on their face.

But yeah, clearly this was badly conceived from the beginning. And it is funny, but this lie about the migrants, I think is important because this is going to be a massive theme in 2024. There will be caravans. They will try to take victims and exploit them politically.

They've done this in the past and they're going to do it. So you can see that these are not just one off gaffes. This is part of a narrative that they're trying to craft. And she fell flat on her face, you know, on a very, very big stage here. Well, as you said, the crazy thing is, you know, they have these lies before every election, the migrant caravans with people coming up with leprosy and it never works. Again, they lose. They tried it in 2018. They lost. They tried it in 2020. They lost. They tried it in 2022. They lost. It's it's it is a loser because people understand their line. And think about the point Charlie just made.

The situation is so horrific and so unspeakably bad that they had to make up. They had to make up a story that that they attached to Biden instead of telling the truth about it, that it went all the way back to George W. Bush. The situation is so horrific that they put off an opportunity to deal with it. They killed the Lankford bill that the president offered them. That would have got on national television and lied, lied like a rug. All right, Charlie Sykes, thank you very much. Oh, we're going to do a little sports now, I guess. Yeah, we are. We're following some NFL quarterback updates ahead of Wednesday's start of the new league year. After a rough ride with the Denver Broncos, and I've talked about him a good bit over the last year,

Russell Wilson's reportedly set to sign a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That is going to be fascinating. The nine-time Pro Bowler and one-time Super Bowl champ tagged the Steelers on X in a hype video for his 13th NFL season. In New England, the Patriots appear to be splitting with Mac Jones, trading quarterback to Jacksonville in exchange for a sixth-round pick. Jacksonville actually, trust me, they got a great deal there. And in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers are bringing back Baker Mayfield on a reported three-year deal worth $100 million. Baker is like Cher and cockroaches. They will survive nuclear blasts. Add Baker Mayfield to that list.

Let's bring in right now the host of Pablo Pablo Torre finds out on Meadowlark Media, ESPN's Pablo Torre. Pablo, I'm excited about all of these things. First of all, you know, I've said from the beginning that Russell Wilson was treated like dirt in Denver. I'm glad he's going to get to play for a great coach, a great organization.

Should be fun to see what happens in Pittsburgh next year. Yeah, you have been Russell Wilson's biggest defender in the national media, sports and politics on that list for a very long time, Joe. And what he's getting now is a different thing for him, right? He's going to be a backup. He's going to be a backup to Kenny Pickett, who's a Steelers quarterback. And Russell Wilson is a guy with a PR problem.

He's a guy whose football skills have aged, so he's not the player he used to be. But in terms of what he can do, the standard of success is changing, right? You know this. When you become a backup, your job is not to mess things up. Your job is to go in and injury relief. And so Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh, the biggest question is, when does he unveil the Pittsburgh accent, Joe? When does he start saying yins? When does he start going rust belt with it?

Because that is Russell Wilson's general MO is to try and acclimate to his to his new climate. And this is a very different climate than it was in Seattle on the political front in that sense. Dude, dude, you just nailed it. The rust belt. I absolutely love it. Well, ask Lemire, who's fidgeting by now. He's very fidgety over here. It's rough for him. Let's have a conversation. Lemire woke up at 1 p.m. to do this show because of the time change.

1 a.m. Feels like 1 p.m. at this point. Yeah, the start of daylight savings time is a punishment for any early morning. Who's an hour of sleep? And then this, John.

And then this. So here's what I'll say. I agree with Joe. I think Mac Jones is going to have another moment in the NFL. He was terrific as a rookie with the Patriots and then done a disservice by Bill Belichick and his coaching staff. He did not have an offensive coordinator his second year.

Didn't have one. And then it was a toxic situation. Belichick clearly lost confidence in Jones. Look, and Jones played poorly this year, no doubt about it. It is disheartening that they could only get a sixth-round pick for him. That's what's sad to me. Yeah, for someone who a couple years ago looked like he was going to be potentially an NFL star, at least a solid starting quarterback, that's gone. The Pats had to move on from him.

That situation was not going to be repaired. They'll probably draft a QB at that third pick. But for Mac Jones, what do you, I still think, I know Joe agrees with me. He could still have a moment in the league somewhere. Well, look, he's an Alabama guy. I understand the SEC-ness underlying this conversation with Joe. But I also want to point out, there is a sliding doors sort of timeline here, right? If Mac Jones is drafted by the 49ers, as was rumored, he's a very different guy right now. He's piloting an offense. Instead, he went to, yeah, the latter days of Bill Belichick. And it was rough.

He had no receivers. And now, look, the Patriots have a new head coach. And the thing you need, of course, from that public facing perspective is a new quarterback. If you're really signaling that this team is different, you're looking for the face of the team to change. They're going to draft a new face now, it looks like. And there are some really good quarterbacks to be selected. And so Mac Jones will be apparently back in his hometown of Jacksonville, which he did not know until he got dealt for a sixth round pick. Yeah, which is a little sad,

but good in that way for him. There you go. Let's go to college basketball. Caitlin Clark's game ceiling three pointer in overtime helped Iowa to its third consecutive Big Ten tournament title last night. And Iowa might have also secured a top seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament for just the third time in program history and the first time since 1992. So very exciting. She's amazing. And Pablo, she's made liars out of the writers, a family guy, because people are watching women's basketball. Yes.

And they're watching it in droves. No, this is the best. This is not just the best story in sports right now. This is the best television show in sports right now. And these games, Kaitlyn Clark's games at Iowa, and this is her winning the Big Ten tournament in overtime last night, just casually scoring 30 in the second half in overtime. These shows are being watched more than not just WNBA games,

more than men's college basketball games, more than NBA games. That's amazing. She had 4 million people watching her last week. And the thing about her, and this is the biggest compliment I can pay an athlete, she's not just the all-time leading scorer in college basketball history. She's someone we should not be grading on any kind of curve. We tend to do that sometimes unconsciously, condescending to the women's game because it's nice that they're doing this finally. But what she's doing beyond all the points

is she's proving that she's one of the greatest entertainers we've seen in sports. Every big moment, she is clutch. She has a showmanship. She has an arrogance, which also plays as a confidence in a sincere way. When the spotlight gets brighter, this is Joe, we've seen this, whether it's Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, I give her the same compliment. The spotlight goes on and she gets better. She gets better. And that is what's incredible about her. I mean, you look at the three pointer she made basically from half court to break Pete Maravich's record. Really extraordinary. Now, Pablo, stay there.

All right. This is like Ghostbusters where we cross, actually, the streams. We're going to do that right now with NBC Sports soccer analyst and co-host of Men in Blazers, Roger Bennett. I mean, Roger and Pablo, you don't think it should work together, but you know what? It doesn't. It's like Reese's. I don't think it does.

They go great together. I love the Rod in the morning. Hashtag Team Mika. Exactly. So, Roger, Mika, unfortunately, we actually, we had a lot of people come over to the house yesterday to watch the game of the year, the match of the year. I'm just trying to rest after a long trip. Mika is trying to rest after a long trip, and she's hearing a lot of screaming, mainly from me.

I won't bring Jack Scarborough into this. Mainly from me. Jack is very nice. A great game, and a game that I must say I was really surprised. Liverpool dominated. I had not seen Man City stretched like that in quite some time. Don't smirk, Roger. You know in your Evertonian heart it's true. I was just thinking of Mika just being the great host. But the sacrifice you make, Mika.

But let's relive those memories because the Premier League, oh, crashed towards its finale. You can roll the tape with Ryan Gosling energy and all the hype of a Jake Paul, Mike Tyson heavyweight clash, but we're real athletes and, you know, actual action.

The weekend, this clash, I don't like to be exaggerative, but the future of democracy depended on its outcome. League leading Liverpool, supported by Joe. Faced Abu Dhabi's four-peat-seeking Manchester City. These two guys, there's Jurgen Klopp about to retire, Pep Guardiola. This is coach K, Dean Smith.

If coach K was a bald Catalan, Dean Smith was a giant German Teutonic Care Bear. Manchester City scored first. Run like an NBA set play with screens and picks. But first blood City, Liverpool tenacious and the goalkeeper took out Darwin like a Brazilian TJ Watt. Alexis McAllister made it 1-1 from the penalty spot and Liverpool dominated the second half. But at the death, City almost stole it.

Goalkeeper playing it cool like he got it but this is a title that will go down to margins like empires they're won and lost by inches there's Pacino and De Niro's dynasty in heat acted out by two men who've pushed the entire world of football to new levels because of their rivalry but neither of them ended up in first place because in the other big game of the weekend, you've got the LA Rams owned Arsenal Football Club. Their fans deserve joy too. Tempting to keep up with Liverpool and City, took the lead against Middling Brentford

with this opener, Declan Rice getting his meaty London forehead. Oh, from Caitlin Clark. Logo range, Pablo, but on the stroke of half-time. Oh, for Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, this is hard to watch. It all went a bit Katie Britt. An agony as his attempt to control the ball really turned into the equivalent of a Kate Middleton photo shoot.

Cue anxiety for Arsenal Football Club. Arsenal are resilient in the 87th minute. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, if you can use your head, well, all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. Arsenal win 2-1. Cue crotch slide. Eight straight wins.

Top of the table, Joe. And this title race, three teams separated by 1.10 games to play, is really the most exciting title chase since football was broadcast in the United States. With the world in the state it is, we need this kind of joy, Joe. Yeah. Of course, we do need this kind of joy. And City going up against Arsenal next.

So that's going to be fantastic. I'm going to come around, Mika. I'm not invited, but I'm going to be coming around, and I'm going to bring you my onion dip. Oh, that is so something. All right, thank you, NBC Sports Soccer Analysts and the host of Men in Blazers, Roger Bennett. Thank you so much, Pablo.

Back to you really quickly. If you or Lemire want to comment on the game, you can, or we can go straight to baseball. Oh, I think baseball. We can do baseball. To keep the theme of John Lemire's misery is on order here, right next to the onion dip. Because, I mean, should we just talk about how the Red Sox might finish last in the AL East for the third straight year? Pablo, they will finish last in the AL East for the third straight year. There's little to no suspense there. Yes, in the last few days, they've lost a starting pitcher, Lucas Giglio.

Yep, UCL. They have still not signed a free agent. Rumors with Jordan Montgomery still not doing that. They do seem destined for a last-place finish. Red Sox owners spending far more resources on Liverpool, and that was a great game. My boys and I were white. But who's counting? Who's counting payroll? But no, we're setting up. The spring training is here. There's not much excitement among Red Sox fans.

But give us a quick take some of the other storylines you're looking at throughout baseball. I think we should talk about the AL East, though, just simply as an organization, because, Joe, this is the SEC of Major League Baseball. It's officially happened. This is a this is a division that is insane. And so the only the only joy I had as a born and bred Yankee fan last season was, of course, the Red Sox were beneath us as we were having the worst season in my lifetime. Right. Just eking out an 82 and 80 record, not making the playoffs.

And now the expectations, let's talk about the big picture here. The expectations are the Yankees need to win this World Series. We got Juan Soto, right, to solve the problem of, okay, not enough offense. Right? Garrett Cole won the Cy Young last season. We have the pitching. We have the hitting. And so the question is, can we beat?

If we can skip right ahead, pass the Orioles, pass the Rays, pass the Blue Jays, which is not easy. But let's do that for a second here. Can we beat the Dodgers? And the Dodgers are the World Series favorite. Mookie Betts playing shortstop. Mookie Betts playing shortstop. Yoshi Yamamoto, who is the richest pitcher in baseball history, a guy I have not really seen walk this earth. Literally, I've not seen this guy, but my God, Joe Joe Otani, Yamamoto, pretty much all of these guys in LA, they're doing what the Yankees used to do. And so I'm clinging to the shreds of my childhood ego in a way that hopefully, hopefully brings us a world series again. It's really, it's really sad. It's really sad. I mean, I understand the Dodgers are the new

Yankees as a wasting all that money, not winning world series, the Yankees, the Yankegers are the new Yankees, wasting all that money, not winning World Series. The Yankees are the old Yankees, too. You know, that's the thing about baseball. Spend all the money and you end up with a Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks Rangers. Yes, exactly. It's March Madness. That's what it is. The World Series is March Madness now, for better and for worse.

It is, mainly for worse. ESPN's Pablo Torre, thank you so much. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you, Nico. Thank you.